


How (not) to impress your fellow HEP members

by goosebxrry



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: M/M, Multi, Mumbo overworks himself, a bit bad at expressing feelings but nonetheless, anyway!, anyway! mumbcubscar... sobs, considering that its sorta my Thing now based on how many times ive done it, cub and scar love him a lot, dont ship real people, except for the sharing a bed one funnily enough, i jam just about every trope into this fic, i wrote this entirely during class lmao, it came out alright tho i think, minecraft personas ONLY, pov the plot is wack, they are soft and in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27646031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goosebxrry/pseuds/goosebxrry
Summary: Mumbo feels the need to prove to Cub and Scar that he's a valuable asset to HEP, but working hard for too long doesn't usually result in the best of situations...Luckily for him, things work out fine in the end anyway.
Relationships: GoodTimesWithScar/Cubfan135, GoodtimeswithScar/Cubfan135/Mumbo Jumbo
Comments: 26
Kudos: 64





	How (not) to impress your fellow HEP members

**Author's Note:**

> (idk how to use ao3 so i'll just put it here i guess gvfhbjnk sorry)
> 
> so a few days ago Anonymous_Lobster and 12u3ie mentioned this ship in the comments and,,, its been living rent free in my head ever since :0
> 
> anyway! yes! this! them!!! the fic is basically just... "how many tropes can i fit into 2500 words of hermitshipping" sooo,, hope you enjoy!
> 
> (minecraft personas only, dont ship real ppl <3)

A week or so had passed since Mumbo had joined HEP, and he'd been working nonstop ever since. His first project being a huge success was great, but it left him with a predicament; he couldn't follow it up with something... dinky and lame. He was there to impress.

And it was stressful.

Realistically Mumbo knew that they would be happy with anything he built them, but under the circumstance that his machinery wasn't up to their standards? He didn't know what he'd do. 'Them' being Cub and Scar, mainly. But if any of the other HEP members didn't like his work he'd still be devastated.

For now, he'd just been fixing whatever he could around the old MooPOP factory. He couldn't disappoint anyone with his original ideas if he decided not to build any yet— plus, tinkering with the semi-ancient redstone was interesting. Tiring, but interesting.

Redstone was easy. It was predictable, it was understandable, it was all just circuits and comparators and repeaters. With enough practice and time, anyone could understand how it worked— or, at least, how to use it.

Feelings, on the other hand, were a different story.

If he didn't understand a redstone build, he could just carefully take it apart and look at the inner workings until everything made perfect sense in his head, but whatever feelings he'd begun developing towards two very specific members of HEP were more confusing than the redstone in Sahara looked to someone other than him or Iskall.

In fact, speak of the devil...

The front door opened, two figures standing in the doorway.

"Oh! Hey, Mumbo," Scar's heels clicked on the floor as he walked over, letting go of Cub hand to walk over while Cub tapped the noteblock with his foot to close the door behind them. "Did you stay here overnight?"

Had the night already passed? …Whoops.

"I— yeah, I guess," He replied back, his voice a pitch or two higher than it should've been. Scar frowned and looked as if he were about to press for details, but then his gaze trailed over to the MooPOP conveyor belt and he gasped.

"Sweet baby Jellie, you got it to work!" His face lit up in excitement. "Oh, Mumbo, this is great! I couldn't figure it out for the life of me."

And there was that warm feeling again, blossoming in his chest as he listened to Scar's praise— or, at least, his happy tone. He held his breath as Scar continued looking over it, tapping the button to turn it off as if testing whether or not it worked.

It did, thank Void.

"I finished this one and I'm almost done with the one over there—" He gestured in the general direction of the other conveyor belt. "I was just getting some more supplies from my shulker when you two came in."

Then Cub spoke, his voice warm and gentle but _worried._

"Mumbo, how long did this take you? It looked broken beyond repair when I took a look at it a while back." He reached up and placed a palm on Mumbo's shoulder, giving him a gentle squeeze that make his knees feel wobbly.

More wobbly than he'd expected— maybe it was the exhaustion mixed in. Cub wasn't lying, after all; these conveyor belts _had_ been busted beyond belief, he was more tired than he was willing to let on. Pulling all-nighters wasn't a new concept to him, but it didn't make them any less energy-sapping.

Mumbo stumbled forward, Cub's eyes widening as he caught him, nearly effortlessly. Scar stopped examining the newly working conveyor belts to move his gaze to them.

Despite Cub's grip keeping him upright, the room still spun and, for a moment, black dots ate away at his vision. He shut his eyes tight to clear them, bracing himself using Cub's arms as he tried not to fall.

A few tics passed before Cub's quiet, "Mumbo?" pulled him back to the present.

He stepped away, swallowing down a stammer as Cub kept a cautious grip to steady him. Cub and Scar exchanged a glance, and embarrassment burned Mumbo's face. Who knows what they were thinking of him now.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," He said, but Cub wasn't buying it. He tightened his grip to keep Mumbo from moving away, examined his face, making him squirm in place where he was standing. Cub looked skeptical— before gently reaching up to touch the shadowed skin just under his eye.

Mumbo jolted and pulled away.

"Why don't you take a little break, Mumbo? There should be a bed in here somewhere—"

"I'm fine," He repeated, a little more firm. He caught the worried glint in Cub's eyes, the equally (if not _more)_ concerned look in Scar's from a new steps away, and put on a forced smile to calm their nerves. It seemed to work. Just a bit.

"...Alright, then. Make sure you take a rest if you need to." Cub said.

"You're very valuable to us, Mumbo!" Scar chimed in. His voice softened as he continued with a gentler, "and we care about you, too. Don't forget it."

"I won't," He mumbled, gently removing Cub's grip from his arm with a slightly more genuine smile. Cub stepped back as Mumbo collected the supplies he'd been meaning to grab, walking across the room and past the ConVex to return to the second MooPOP conveyor belt.

He was already kneeled down beside the machine and back to work when they decided to continue walking up towards the vault door towards the rest of the HEP factory, murmuring in soft voices— too soft for him to hear.

"Let's keep an eye on him, you know how he can be," Cub said. Scar nodded his agreement with a quiet, "Definitely."

Best case scenario, Mumbo would come to his senses, go find a bed to doze off for a while (although, he wasn't likely to take that route. Cub and Scar could tell he'd been pushing himself lately— maybe a bit too far.)

Scar sent a worried glance his way before walking through the second vault to the rest of the factory.

And Mumbo was alone once again.

Maybe after only fifteen minutes or so of actual progress, Mumbo's thoughts were going elsewhere as he found it harder and harder to focus on the task at hand.

…Or, rather, his thoughts were transforming to darkness; as much as he'd prefer to have, in the very least, semi-coherent thoughts in his mind, he felt his eyes closing and his grip on his tools going slack before he managed to shake himself back to consciousness.

He couldn't stop now. He just needed to go a little further, get a bit more done, he _had to—_

His exhausted mind protested at the thought of more work, and no matter how much he wanted to, he just couldn't resist any more. It was like trying to force yourself to stick your hand into the fiery opening of an in-use smoker— some part of your mind was able to override and stop you.

He rested his head against the copper on the side of the machine. It was far from comfortable, but better than standing up. He ignored the way the cold of the metal seeped into his cheek, instead focusing on the quiet hum of machinery, the waves crashing against the terraformed beach outside.

Not quite a minute had passed, and he felt someone's fingers carding through his hair as sleep tugged on him. He didn't bother opening his eyes to see what— or who— it was, he didn't have enough energy.

Something warm was draped over his shoulders and, he was pretty sure, based on the texture, that it was a blanket of some sort. A soft one— not that it mattered, he would've appreciated it either way.

Mumbo tried to tell whoever it was that was taking pity on him 'thank you,' but all he really managed to do was murmur something unintelligible. A familiar chuckle sounded in reply, and the fingers ran comfortingly through his hair again.

"You're welcome," Scar said, "Sleep well."

▽

Sunlight shining on his closed eyelids was what finally woke Mumbo back up.

As disoriented as he felt, knowing he was waking up at some ridiculous time in the afternoon, it didn't help that he was opening his eyes to somewhere he'd never woken up before.

Thankfully, it didn't take him long to recognize the space as the HEP factory. The sun was shining through the great stained windows, directly into his face, and he raised a hand to block it.

He heard voices from nearby and turned towards them.

"Cub, shh, he's awake," Scar was saying, and he made his way over to crouch down beside him, smiling warmly. His jade-green eyes were gentle as they met his, and despite his cheerful tone, he kept his voice down when he spoke.

"Good evening! Sorry for not moving you somewhere more comfortable, we didn't want to wake you up— I was worried you wouldn't fall back asleep afterwards."

He felt another rush of embarrassment as he remembered exactly what had happened before he'd fallen asleep. That must've been Scar, then, giving him the blanket.

But before he could comment, or apologize, or whatever he'd been planning on doing, Cub had joined Scar beside him with a water bottle and a bowl of rabbit stew.

"Eat something, I know you haven't in a while," He said, crouching down beside Scar. Mumbo reached for the spoon, but Cub moved it away from his hands and towards his increasingly red face.

"I can eat on my own, Cub, I'm—"

"C'mon Mumbo, we know you're tired. Let us do this for you." Scar said, And Mumbo glanced his way. It was like they _knew_ his heart was becoming more and more frantic in it's rhythm every time they spoke.

But despite it all, he didn't struggle, just moved the blanket to the side and sat up a little straighter as he obediently let Cub… feed him… a spoonful of stew. (If he wasn't already beet-red, he _definitely_ was now.)

Scar smiled at them and he was absolutely positive he was going to not-so-spontaneously combust if either of them did one more thing to fluster him, purposeful or not— which, at this point, he couldn't tell if it was.

"Mumbo," Cub began. He looked up, waiting for him to continue talking. "You don't need to do this, you know."

"Overworking yourself, he means," Scar added.

"Yeah." Cub confirmed. "We'd really rather you didn't, actually. It's not a good habit to get into, it... worries us."

He looked between them, taking in the words. That hadn't been his intention, he'd only been trying to impress them, to prove that he was a good addition to the already incredible team, but now they were worried? All because of him.

He tried to search Cub's face, and all he came back with was disappointment.

(In reality, there wasn't really any disappointment in his eyes. It was more a mixture of worry, care, and even _love,_ but Mumbo's tired and spiralling brain decided to ignore all of that and latch onto whatever negative he could find.)

A quiet sob involuntarily escaped him before he could metaphorically stomp it out. Immediately, the ConVexes' expressions changed to panic as they both began speaking at once, Cub putting down the bowl to the side.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I just wanted to show you that—" He cut off as Scar hushed him, thumbing the tears from his cheeks with the gentlest touch while Cub intertwined their fingers.

"You don't need to prove anything to us, Mumbo," Scar said quietly, cupping his cheek with the hand that had previously been brushing off his tears. His heart did a funny hiccupy thing in time with his chest, and he met Scar's eyes with his own wide ones. "We love you just the way you are. I promise."

Mumbo's breath stuttered.

As many things as he wanted to say, all Mumbo managed to stutter out in that moment was a quiet, almost hopeful (but not quite willing to commit to that feeling in particular,) "L-Love?"

Scar gave him a fond smile, the kind that made your eyes crinkle up in the corners, and Cub gave his hand a little encouraging squeeze, rubbing over Mumbo's knuckles with his thumb.

"Yeah. Love." Cub replied, the smile obvious in his tone even if Mumbo's eyes hadn't been glued to their wonderful faces. He continued after a moment, "...If that's what you want, at least."

Mumbo nodded immediately, without even an ounce of hesitation or doubt.

Then Scar leaned in, tilting his head so he could place a gentle kiss against his mouth, allowing Mumbo's eyes to close. The only sound was his own heart hammering in his ribcage, and he raised his unoccupied hand to mimic the hold Scar had on him.

It ended too soon for his liking, but he had no complaints; not when Cub quickly leaned in to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth, his beard scratching Mumbo's face ever so slightly.

Mumbo tried to pull him closer in an effort to kiss him properly, like he'd gotten to kiss Scar, but Cub reluctantly drew away. "You still haven't had anything to drink—" He made a point to gesture at the uncorked bottle of water "—and your stew is getting cold."

"...Right." He'd almost forgotten— his stomach gave a low growl in response.

While they had been talking, Scar moved from where he was sitting to sit beside Mumbo, leaning against his shoulder and wrapping his around him. He pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Cub's right, you need to eat. Oh, I don't think I mentioned, I made the stew myself!"

He sounded very proud of himself, and Mumbo couldn't help but smile.

"Don't worry, Mumbo, I was supervising. It won't poison you."

He chuckled softly at Cub's comment, only giggling harder when Scar gasped indignantly, rushing to his own defence. Mumbo leaned into his side, gladly taking the next spoonful of rabbit stew that Cub offered him.

"...Thank you, both," He said, and was offered two equally loving smiles in return. Something told him he'd get to see those smiles more often from now on, and the thought made that bloomy fluttery feeling reawaken in his heart.

For possibly the first time, he didn't push it away. He embraced it.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed, and have a lovely morning/evening/night!


End file.
